Daily Life Update

So I have been busy.  With what?

1.  Lesson planning-  During the even weeks I have to prepare 4 lesson plans.  Luckily for my writing class, I have lesson plans from Gansu which I am currently using.  During the odd weeks, I have to prepare 5 lesson plans (2 writing lesson plans), but again I still have all the lessons from my writing class in Gansu.  Later I will run out of lesson plans though because the Gansu writing class only had about 14 lessons; whereas, this Chengdu writing class needs a total of 30 lessons.  There is a lot of lesson planning this semester, but I cut my work in half by planning a detailed speaking class and then just use the listening book and its activities for the listening course.  Lastly, I have to grade essays from my writing class.  At least it is a small class of only 20 students.

2.  Secondary projects-  I sleep on the countryside campus once a week so that I can hold office hours that every student must attend at least once.  Also, there is a room that the school wants us to make into a Resource Room, so that is another responsibility.  Another task I have been doing this semester is helping students practice their English by answering emails from students.  In Gansu, students didn't have daily access to internet; whereas, these Chengdu students have computers in their rooms with internet. 

3.  Job hunt-  I have applied for a job in China with a NGO and have been going through a rigorous interview process.  The first one was a written interview where I had to do three tasks, even reading and commenting on a 20 page document, a rubric for the qualities of an effective teacher.  Then I had two interviews over Skype and have another interview in a week.  Preparing and having interviews is mentally wearing, the beforehand background reading and reviewing of one's accomplishments and work experience, then the after the interview replays where at 3 am in the morning one starts having conversations with oneself, answering the questions again but better.  Even if I don't get the job, it has been a great experience going through all these interviews.  Good prep for my future job hunt.

4.  Chinese language-  During one of the interviews, I had to do a role play using Chinese where I had to talk with a middle school principal about the exam scores of an English class.  I did not have the language to do it which means I need to really start studying Chinese again.  This week I have started having Chinese corner with my students.  We met 2 times already and talked about Women's Day, personalities, and traditional women and men.  I need to find a tutor.

5.  Office work-  PC newsletter, PC Annual Report, preparing for COS conference and PDM workshops, helping the PMs figure out a more efficient way to write letters of recommendations

6.  Fun-  The American Consulate offered free tickets to a musical evening of an American opera singer and Sichuan opera singers.  I love live music and it was fun to invite fellow colleagues to attend.  I was actually surprised that they accepted my invitation because opera is not the most popular musical genre, but they really appreciated the opportunity for the exposure to American culture.